Interview: The Shield's New Strike Team Member

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An exclusive chat with Alex O'Loughlin, the new member of Vic Mackey's team.

By Eric Goldman

If you haven't seen all of the most recent season of The Shield, watch out, because I'm about to discuss the shocking events that occurred. Suffice to say, all hell broke loose in Season 5. Of course, it's not like things had been happy-go-lucky on the dark and compelling series before, but with internal affairs officer Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) investigating Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike Team, things were getting increasingly dangerous for Vic. By the time the season had ended, tragedy struck in the worst way, as Strike Team member Shane (Walton Goggins) killed his friend Lem (Kenny Johnson), afraid that the increasingly guilt-stricken Lem would give up evidence on everyone and their corrupt and criminal activities. The last time we saw the Strike Team, no one knew what Shane had done, and Vic has vowed to get revenge on whoever killed Lem

When The Shield returns next season, there will be a new face amongst the Strike Team, as Alex O'Loughlin joins the cast as Kevin Hiatt. Australian actor O'Loughlin appeared in the Marvel Comics adaptation Man-Thing and has a role in Blade: Trinity director David S. Goyer's upcoming film The Invisible, but The Shield will mark his most high profile role yet.

Recently I paid a visit to the set of The Shield and had a chance to talk with O'Loughlin about his exciting new role. Before our talk, I saw the actor standing in "Video Village," where the crew members viewed a scene being filmed, while O'Loughlin took turns switching off with Chiklis (who was also directing the episode) playing a bass guitar a crew member had loaned them. With production underway, it was understandably hard for O'Loughlin to set aside much time to talk, and the very friendly actor at one point had to be called away to film midway through our conversation, only to then very graciously take some time out of his lunch break in order to finish our chat. Though he was careful to not give away too much of the show's upcoming storylines, O'Loughlin discussed his character and what it's like to join such a dynamic show.

IGN TV: How many weeks have you been working on the show now?

Alex O'Loughlin: About three.

IGN TV: How's it going so far?

O'Loughlin: It's going good. It's a really scary transition. I've never worked on something like this. It's tough! It's like there's film acting, there's TV acting and then there's The Shield. That's kind of how I describe it.

Alex O'Loughlin as Kevin Hiatt on The Shield

IGN TV: Can you describe your character?

O'Loughlin: Kevin Hiatt is the new "head's up" on the Strike Team. They've brought him in to lead the Strike Team and potentially take Vic Mackey's place. They've been talking about Vic moving into retirement. They've also been talking about Vic behaving himself and not moving into retirement, and so it's all kind of ambiguous at the moment. And they haven't released that much information as to how well behaved my character is either. But he's certainly He's come from INS and he's done four years on the border and he's done some gang work as well. But he's pretty street savvy and he's pretty good with his weapon and good with his hands. So we think there may be a little more to it than that.

Kevin Hiatt (Alex O'Laughlin) quickly discovers the messy side of The Shield

IGN TV: What's his relationship like with Vic? How do they get along?

O'Loughlin: They're getting there! [laughs] They're getting there. It's pretty interesting putting Kevin and Vic together. I mean Kevin's a lot younger than Vic and he's the new bloke, but he's also been brought in at the same level. So it's kind of like putting two panthers in the same cage and watching them just circle, you know? We're still -- even what we're shooting now -- where these two characters are working each other out. But they seem to be getting along okay.